Misinformation and COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance in Kampala, Uganda: A Comparison of Health Care Workers and the General Public

Abstract COVID-19 has greatly impacted communities worldwide, more so in developing countries. To successfully resolve the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination coverage of more than 80% is required. However, this has been impacted by misinformation that has increased COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Limited studies have assessed the effect of COVID-19 misinformation on vaccine acceptance, especially in Africa. This assessed the current understanding of COVID-19 vaccination as well as the effect of circulating misinformation on vaccine uptake among healthcare workers (HCWs) versus the general public (GP) in Uganda. Methods: This was a quantitative cross-sectional study conducted among HCWs and the GP in Kampala, Uganda. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 564 participants were recruited, and of these, 311 were HCWs, and 253 were GP. Data were analyzed using frequency distributions and Chi-square tests. SPSS version 22.0 was used to conduct all study analyses. Results: This study revealed that the proportion of vaccinated HCWs (77.4%) was significantly higher than that of vaccinated GP (64.4%, p= 0.010). Nearly all study participants were aware of COVID-19 vaccines (96.7%). The study showed that the majority of the study participants (89.7%) were exposed to rumors about the unconfirmed bad COVID-19 vaccine side effects, and this information left the majority hesitant about getting vaccinated (81.1%) and not willing to take up the vaccines (55%). Conclusions: The study showed a negative impact of misinformation on vaccine uptake and could be the most significant contributor to vaccine hesitancy in future vaccine programs